Report from conference in Kiruna, Sweden, 27-30 June ,2013

The main presenter of the day was Norwegian journalist Bård Wormdal (author of 'The Satellite War') who spoke on "Norwegian double standards on security policy in the Arctic". He began by reminding us of the poke about the Vardø radar controversy. Back in 1998 a Raytheon Have Stare "high-resolution X-band tracking and imaging radar with a 27-meter mechanical dish antenna" which had been operational at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California since 1995, was quietly dismantled and moved to northern Norway. In California it was used in early development tests of the US National Missile Defense (NMD) program and in Norway it was reassembled by the US and Norway under the project name "Globus II" at Vardø just 40 miles from Russian border. The US and Norway claimed that the radar would be used to monitor space debris however Russian and US experts demonstrated how its principal use would be to collect detailed intelligence data on Russia's long-range ballistic missiles.